Town board talks year-round busing at work session

By Daniel West

Trail-Gazette

Posted:
06/15/2017 04:22:42 PM MDT

The Town of Estes Park Board of Trustees met Tuesday for a work session at which they discussed the possibility for a year-round bus system that would connect Estes Park to other Front Range communities.

Transit Program Manager Brian Wells presented a plan to the trustees for Estes Park to establish a Rural Transportation Authority (RTA). An RTA would be a separate organization from the town and would collect taxes and fees to pay for its services, similar to the town's local marketing district, Visit Estes Park.

Currently the town offers free trolley service during the summer between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. Estes Park also has transportation services from Via, which gets some of its funding from the Federal Transit Administration.

Wells said the town gets continual requests for adding shuttle service to increase the schedule of service to year round. A recent survey of the town showed 76 percent liked the idea of year-round service.

In addition to providing service all year, Wells said an RTA could offer expanded routes to connect Estes Park to Loveland, via U.S. 34, and Lyons, via U.S. 36, which would connect with other transit systems, allowing people to get to and from Estes Park solely through public transportation. The expanded service would likely require fees for riders, while the current service is free with the town supporting it out of the general fund.

The estimated cost for the bus service would be $2.8 million a year and could get the majority of its funding from an increased sales tax, according to Wells' presentation.

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An RTA can be formed if it is approved by both the town board and the Larimer County Commissioners, as well as through a public vote of the residents within the RTA boundaries during a November election. As such, Wells said, the formation of an RTA could not happen until the fall of 2018.

The trustees were interested in the idea, but expressed a need for further information. Trustee Ron Norris said he would like to know how RTAs in other parts of Colorado worked and how successful they were. Mayor Todd Jirsa concurred and also said the town would need to assess how much demand there was for bus service.

Wells said he would gather additional information for the trustees' July work session.

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